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308,000 Homeless From Insurrection

February 18, 1999|By From Tribune News Services.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — More than 308,000 civilians in Colombia were forced to flee their homes in 1998 out of fear they would be caught in the cross-fire of the country's guerrilla war, a human-rights group reported Wednesday.

The non-governmental Consultancy on Human Rights and Forces Displacements said the refugee problem last year was one of the worst on record.

The war pits leftist guerrillas against government security forces and ultra-right death squads. It has been raging since the mid-1960s and has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the past 10 years alone.

In a separate report also published Wednesday, the government's Human Rights Ombudsman said 1,231 people had been killed in 194 politically-motivated multiple killings last year.